Talking Points: The first game without Kobe Bryant will be a tough test for these Lakers. Steve Nash may or may not play, Metta World Peace (who may or may not start) is on the mend, and one of the best teams in the league is coming into Staples with something to play for. San Antonio has slipped behind the Thunder for the West’s top spot and, with either the reeling Lakers or the Jazz vying for the 8th spot, that number one seed has never looked nicer. The Spurs also have Tony Parker back in the fold to reek havoc on the Lakers’ now even more depleted backcourt. And while it’s nice to hear that Andrew Goudelock will be signed as another body to help, I doubt he does much in this game (and even if he does see time, he’s not exactly known for his defense).

That said, as disheartening as it is to think of a post-Kobe Lakers’ team, this is also a moment of opportunity. Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard have a chance to fill the leadership and production void. Fringe rotation players like Darius Morris, Chris Duhon, and Goudelock may get an opportunity to see minutes and they need to seize the moment and perform to the best of their abilities in them. Earlier this season Earl Clark was thrust into the rotation when injuries hit the players in front of him and he jumped on his chance to become a fixture in the lineup. No one can replace Kobe, but guys will get their chance to do more and this will be their chance to prove that they’re worthwhile players.

The ultimate focus, however, is about beating the Spurs. They’re a fantastic team who continue to marvel with their ability to play team basketball at an unbelievably high level. Even without Ginobili and Diaw, they have enough depth on their roster to win. Key to their attack is the Parker and Duncan combo and their ability to dictate offensive flow via the P&R and their weak side motion attack. If the Lakers are to win this game, they’ll need to find a way to slow down Parker while surrendering the types of shots to Duncan and the rest of the Spurs that aren’t the shots they initially seek.

Mostly that means keeping Parker out of the lane and having Duncan take jumpers from the top of the key while Leonard, Green, and Neal take contested jumpers from above the break of the three point line. The Spurs want to work the corners for three point shots for their wings and get Duncan working foul line down where he can use his still very effective post game to get good looks. While it’s impossible to keep these players from taking the shots they want for an entire game, forcing them to skew towards less desirable ones should be the top priority.

Offensively, the Lakers must work the offense through their big men as often as possible. Whether that’s through Pau at the elbows and the left block or Dwight through straight post ups, they need their touches in order to try and dictate the flow of the game. By going through the post, the Lakers can slow the tempo and, hopefully, get shots at the basket or draw fouls on Duncan and Splitter. Beyond those two the Spurs don’t have much worthwhile size to battle the Lakers’ bigs so getting either one out of the game would be a great way to accentuate one of the only advantages the Lakers have. (The flip-side, of course, is that Pau and Dwight both stay out of foul trouble in their own right. Dwight has been foul prone lately and that simply can’t happen today.)

The other key offensively is that the Lakers wings move the ball and hit what open shots they do get. The Spurs have improved a great deal offensively and part of that improvement has been their ability to funnel the action to their big men and not surrender open jumpers in the process. However, if the Lakers can do a good job of working the ball inside-out, attacking closeouts, and then making the extra pass off dribble penetration, they should get some good looks. Those shots — whether by Meeks, Blake, Ron, Clark, or Duhon — must be made at a consistent enough rate to keep the defense honest.

This game is sure to be emotional. The Lakers are without Kobe but are also still fighting for their playoff lives. A win tonight gets them one step closer to their goal of a post-season berth. And while that cloud of Kobe’s injury will hang over the team, they can hopefully channel that energy into a positive effort that allows them to compete at the highest level. After all, Kobe gave his all — ultimately falling to injury — trying to help this team get over the hump. They need to do everything they can to not just honor that, but to win for themselves.

Where you can watch: 6:30pm start time on TWC Sportsnet. Also listen on ESPN Radio 710AM.

104 responses to Preview and Chat: The San Antonio Spurs

Kobe Alert: Like most of us, I am hoping this is not the end, and I do not think it will be. However , I feel many are discounting the severity of this situation, only because we are talking about Kobe Bryant. He always gets up from the floor, he always plays with injuries, and he always comes back quickly. However, there is a reason it is called the “Achilles”, as it can bring down, an otherwise invincible warrior. If anyone can do this, Kobe is the one, but this mountain is high, and it is not clear exactly what will be on the other side.

For me, this was just like the “Announcement”. It was sudden and unexpected, and I wake up every morning with a knot in my stomach. I have thought about something like this many times, but like many, I have been conditioned to the fact that it just doesn’t happen to Kobe. He ignores the pain, he wills his body back into the game. Recently, I knew KB was nearing the end of his career, and I actually used that as an added reason to see both home and away games. I had to listen to: “Who flys across the country just to see a basketball game?”, Answer = I do. The last time I had this conversation, I remember saying, “I don’t know how many times, I am going to get a chance to do this”. Watching today’s game is going to be painful. Yes – I am a Laker fan first, but that is exactly it, Kobe is the Lakers, just like Magic was during his era.

The Kobe Alert has reported KB’s accomplishments. At this pause in his career, let’s review a few highlights of where he stands on the All Time Lists:

Awards: All Star Selections (15): Tied for Second: Named as Starter (15): 1st, All NBA Selections (14): Tied for 2nd, First Team All NBA (10): Tied for 2nd, All Defensive Team (12): Tied for 2nd, All Defense First Team (9): Tied for 1st. Top 5 in MVP Voting (10): Tied for 2nd

Add to this his 7 Conference Championships, 5 NBA Titles, 2 Finals MVPs, and 1 League MVP, + that’s an impressive resume, belonging to one of the greatest of all time.

Thanks to everyone who has supported the Kobe Alert these past 2 years, and thanks to R, PurpleBlood, Tra, Chearn, and Barath for your sentiments in the recent threads. I am hoping to write many more !

Whether you are a Kobe disliker or a Kobe admirer – thanks Tra – the job today is to see how the others will step up. The middle won’t be as crowded, the ball probably won’t stick as much – talking at you MWP – and there won’t be anyone to play center-field on defense and also lose his man. No excuses – time for the team to man-up.

We certainly won’t be better, but we can be good enough to get to the playoffs. At that point we will see what adjustments the coach and the players are able to make.

honestly, i didn’t even know achilles heels could be repaired. In Korean mafia traditions, you would often send somebody to cut the other guy’s Achilles tendon to ‘retire’ him from the field. Guess that was in the past.

Also, anyone in the know tell me how the amnesty thing works? If Kobe comes back a full season afterwards, is he still subject to the bidding process or can he choose a team of his choice?

I know Kobe probably wants to be back sometime during next season, but the more reasonable approach seems to be to rest the full season and come back after…

I dont know i have a gut feeling the Lakers are going to win this game based on pure emotion. Its possible that they feed off that emotion at least for tonight. DWIGHT NEEDS TO STEP UP and Pau needs to be our finisher. If MDA stick to a 7 man rotation i will officially give up on him and pray that he gets fired. If i were him i throw everybody out there to play, nothing to lose by triying to win by comitee. No other choice. Nash wont play tonight either. So MDA needs to swallow his pride and live or die with the best frontline in the game. Time to man up.

Re amnesty – the lakers would potentially save 80 million next year if they amnesty Kobe.

As a part of that they would also lose kobes bird rights which complicates things when it would come to signing him in 2014 as he would eat up a lot of our cap room depending on what we do – someone had mentioned that we would only be able to offer him 2.5million but I don’t think that’s accurate

Shaun, the Lakers will not amnesty Kobe, that would make sense if he was some overpaid player like say, Joe Johnson not a franchise cornerstone/global icon like Kobe Bryant, i know your answering a question but i cant believe people eat anything the media speculates. Im a Lakers fan first and foremost but if they were to do something so disgustinly disloyal to a player like Kobe especially when he went down like a soldier fighting for the team and franchise i would stop being a Laker fan forever im serious about that. The Lakers and the league in general are about money and what Kobe gets paid is peanuts compared to what he brings back to the league in revenue. A Kobe Bryant comeback/farewell/last hurrah tour would be a license to print money, even if he dont retire his comeback will bring butts in seats and millions and millions of dollars to the Lakers and the NBA. Kobe will retire as a Laker.

I know the guy is probably saying these things ‘tongue in cheek’, but man D’Antoni really rubs me the wrong way.

D’Antoni on Lakers life post-Kobe: “One of the problems (early this season) was we had so many alpha dogs.”

D’Antoni’s response to Kobe’s tweet that he would call at halftime with adjustments: “I’ll be sure to turn my phone off.”

Yeah- I know that the guy is joking, but damn.

It’s gonna be really tough for me to watch the game tonight. After Magic retired, I had a really hard time watching the Lakers for quite a while until my expectations adjusted. Kobe will be back next year and it would be quite the surprise if it wasn’t by opening day.

Great post Robert. I can’t wait to see those Kobe alerts start to change up a bit next year.

darius: as if the challenges weren’t enough without kobe bryant, do we give the lakers a pass since the guarantor is not able to play and thereby the guarantee to push thru to the playoffs is null and void? i think not. and from what we’re hearing, the spurs and the rockets will be hard pressed to gain victories against this new look lakers, sans kobe.

the nba needs the lakers because we are and have been the frontruners (except for maybe one hiccup season) for over this past decade, moreover since the beginning of this century.

have we been written off? have the odds fallen greatly? have we no chance in hell? yes would be the sane answer. but in this insane season, what are the odds that we turn this around and make a run beyond the imagination?

Question: the Suns get our pick if we MAKE the playoffs or if we MISS the playoffs? Or is it no matter what? And isnt there a trade stip that someone (Chicago?) can swap picks with us? Is that for this year only or can roll into 2014? Forgive me, I’m just daydreaming about Kobe coming back in 2014-15 with Dwight and Andrew Wiggins… anyone who can clarify would be appreciated

Cant believe this, Kobe is out, Nash out, people asking that MDA increase the rotation, check, that Morris get some burn, check and people still whine about the exact same things it gets really tiresome, i dont think this is the time for another whinefest 2013. Im rooting for the team and if it wasnt by Pau bad shooting the Lakers would be leading by 10, more than happy with the team play so far. They giving their all.

Fern- wasn’t saying we would, no would i want us too – Kobe is my hero – i started playing basketball as a 12yr old watching play as I player in high school amd now into normal life – just wanted to give some details

As for our pick it goes to the suns if we miss the playoffs and it goes to the cavs if we make the playoffs – not sure how this effects our later drafts as we will still owe someone a pick + a second 1st rounder and a 2nd rounder to the suns at some point

The team is playing okay but the Spurs can be much better. I bet Pau misses getting an on time pass from Kobe in the high post set in the triple threat position with 2 feet of space. Lakers need a dominant 2nd half from Dwight can’t disappear after one quarter like he just did. This is a game Lakers can win but I don’t want to count on a career night from Blake rather put it in the franchise guy’s hands.

Shaun even if we had retain those picks odds are that we would not get anything worth our while either this year draft is weak and even if the Lakers miss the playoffs and had those drafts there would not had amounted to much. The Lakers is a team that pretty rarely get something good out of the draft.Thats the price of sucess, we will reload on 2014.

wow, we’re actually giving spurs a fight. this is a good sign. bring home the W Lakers – for Kobe.
in all honesty, i like the Kobe alert, thanks Robert for that. kind of reminisce of Kobe’s career, and i know some of the kobe bashers did not know how the guy started. he climbed a hell of a mountain to be the the Kobe that we know. he’s the epitome of greatness post-Jordan era.
i know that he’s in the conversation with the greats, and in the last few years, while ESPN was feeding on others guys stats, our guy just keeps on playing, showing that you cannot change the game by mere stats alone – you have to show others your style of play, finesse and pride. The will to win to get that championship.
Kobe is a warrior and i really pray for his fast recovery. it will not be easy due to the type of injury, and with his age, however if there’s a man who can overcome this, it definitely is the Kobe aka Black Mamba aka Vino.

Is there some kind of Spanish All-Star game this summer? Pau must want to leave early for Spain. Worst gane of his career. This team is just terrible on offense without Kobe but then defense is better.

they really need to change the rules to prevent hack-a-whomever. It makes for some terrible terrible basketball and I’d be pissed if I paid to see a game and had to watch someone shoot FTs for 5 minutes.

So this is why the Lakers traded for Dwight. This is a glimpse of what the Lakers could be with Dwight leading and better pieces. It was more important for Dwight to step up than Pau himself. Huge gut check for him and his post game commers makes me believe he is staying. Wow what a night!!!

Great game…guys like Meeks and Morris may not be the most skilled of players, but they played awfully hard. Sometimes that’s all it takes. Kudos to Dwight and Pau. Pau shot poorly but played well otherwise. Dwight showed his chops tonight. He is showing his true self. The man is capable.

Not sure if you guys caught this, but the Lakers still have an outside chance of catching both Golden State AND Houston, if either lose their remaining games. (LA would own the tiebreaker over both if they beat Houston on Wed). Games to watch are Houston @ Phoenix, and GS vs San Antonio and @ Portland.

@Kenny T you are absolutely correct,and about Meeks he plays hard every single night its a mixed bag but thats why i dont rag on him like some do obsesively on this site. And Bizzard link and comments are spot on too.

I bleed purple and gold and I used to post on these forums a lot, but for the past year or two every time I check in I just see post after post of people hating on certain players with all kinds of hyperbole. And then when those same players do good things on the court, instead of giving credit where its due, they just find another player on the team to throw some hate at.

Sorry for venting, I just think that when you support a team, you ought to support every player on that team, because not a single one of them is trying to lose the game. We don’t have any unlikable guys on the bench as far as I’m concerned. And today in the face of adversity the team had a huge grind-it-out win. The Lakers are one of the best, most proud franchises in the NBA. They deserve fans that support all the players, even when they’re struggling.

Dwight stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park tonight. But what I (and I’m pretty sure several others) was surprised to see was SB out-playing Parker. Because of this, we were able to withstand a terrible shooting night by The Spaniard and still come away with the win.

1 win and we’re in.

Finally, Much Respect to, IMO, the Greatest Power Forward of all-time, Mr. Tim Duncan. It’s obvious that he still has a lot left in the tank.

I think Kurt Rambus said it best about Pau. He was forcing things to score. What he wasn’t doing was being the focal point to help assist others. Pau is not a #1, but he is a fantastic assist person who can score if left alone at all. When he trys to score first – to make up for the loss of Kobe – he often fails at both the scoring and the assists.

Good grief! This is the 2nd time in 24hrs I put something fairly innocuous up and it got tagged for review. I am not angry – but I am frustrated. I try to avoid words and phrases that might trigger something, but I do try to sound somewhat intelligent and not just throw things against the wall.

Dwight Howard only smiled a couple times tonight. He sank freethrows during crunch time and he played like Dwight of old. Tonight he played with a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

I liked his post game interview, he looked like a man with work to do. I’d say he’s learned how to lead from the great Vino, by the tone of that interview. Not happy to have won that game, knowing that they still need to win the game against Houston.

Steve Blake was the point guard but only had 4 assists and 4 turnovers and he’s a pg. Don’t get me wrong he played a phenomenal game on both sides of the floor, but Kobe would get raked over the coals for only 4 assists as a shooting guard.

2nd year pg Morris showed he deserved playing time to develop this year. He was drafted 41st, plays decent defense, needs to work on his jumper but looks much more under control.

hhsammo, that would be correct. Furthermore, it is in the realm of possility that GS Warriors lose their next 2 games as well (against SAS and then @ POR) and have the Lakers position themselves as the 6th seed (barring they win their last game against HOU).

I was at the game tonight. Pau had an awful shooting night, but he was working his a– off on the boards and to create shots from the post and almost every shot he took was a good shot that he normally would have made. If anything, he was pressing too much, trying too hard to take the mantle as the #1 option. I swear that some people on this board don’t even watch the game but just base their criticisms on the box score.

This team, in the last 20 games, has impressed me with its passion and work ethic, whether that’s Dwight or Blake stepping up, or Jodie struggling but still making the extra defensive rotation. I really am growing tired of the incessant criticisms of the players who struggle on a given night– if they’re lazy it’s one thing, but if they’re working hard but missing shots, shouldn’t that be something different? Or is everyone supposed to shoot 80 percent from the field?

Making the playoffs, with all that’s happened to us this year, should our version of the NBA championship. This season has been brutal – from the nixed CP3 trade, to the injuries to Dwight, Nash, Blake, Hill, Pau and finally Kobe – but I feel so proud to be a Lakers fan. This team is playing with championship intensity, despite a less than championship roster. You know what? I’m proud of these guys– we weren’t going to beat OKC even with a healthy Kobe, but I find this ending to the season to be so much more beautiful– like Rocky losing the fight but knowing he’s a winner because he went toe to toe with the champ and remained on his feet.

IMO, best scenario would be for Hou to win tomorrow and Gst losing thereby locking Houston at 6th seed. That way lakers should be able to beat Houston’s backups Wednesday night and if Gst loses to Portland that same night, lakers would move up to 7th and play the Spurs whom they’ve played relatively well against and match up best against.

True..If Houston loses to Phoenix, we’ll play them for the 7th spot. Golden State could also lose their last 2, and end up tied with us and the Lakers would also win the tiebreak I think. But the GS scenario is unlikely. They play San Antonio and Portland. I expect SA to rest their stars since OKC pretty much have the top seed locked-up. Right now they are a win, or a SA loss away.